Other European Frequent Flyer Programs - Anyway to tell if I might get the new EI J Seats ?

I know that it’s EI we’re talking about here, so anything could happen & everything is as likely to change as the weather, but still I’ll ask…….

Now that they have all but 2 (I think) A330’s re-fitted , are they being consistent in using the re-fitted aircraft on the DUB-JFK route ? I would imagine that the 105/4 would have a higher chance of a newer / re-fitted aircraft, but how about the 109/8 ?

I’m half thinking of taking a wee spin over to the big city sometime before Christmas & trying out the new premier in the process. But I would be well p!ssed off to end up in the older seats :td:

Also is there anyway of telling from the seat map, if the scheduled aircraft has the new cabin fitted ?

Kered,

Good to hear that you are planning to try the new EI Premier Class Product.

From all of the latest ACARS reports, the DUB-JFK routes are being flown by new aircraft greater than 95% of the time in the last month. There is now only one aircraft with older J config left in the fleet, EI-DUB & this is generally operated on DUB-MCO/DUB-SNN-BOS type routing, however it has shown up once or twice on the JFK routing.

A330-300 series aircraft are generally operated to JFK, with the odd A330-200 showing up (these are now all re-fitted). You can tell the new cabin config from the following features of the seatmap:

Re-fitted EI-ORD will show up as having 20 seats in Business.
The remainder of the aircraft are distingushed by the Y seating map configuration. The first row of Y will have only 3 seats in the centre section as opposed to 4 on EI-DUB. Furthermore, the gaps between seating at the exits in Y class appear larger than those which appear on the older config map.

Current seat maps indicate that the 109/108 will be operated by an A330-200 & the 105/104 by an A330-300.

Having recently travelled the route in Business, I had the newer cabins on both routings.

Overall, on either flights, you stand a very good chance at experiencing the new Premier/Business cabins.

EI Premier.

Thanks for that ^

Specifically, I’m looking at DUB-JFK 14/11 & JFK-DUB 19/11.

Both the 105/4 & 109/8 are showing as 333’s, with 24 seats showing in J.

So...... just to work through your explanation of the seat maps. You say that the re-fitted aircraft such as ORD should show 20 seats in J. So I’m not so sure about what I’m seeing there ??

Re-doing the dummy booking in Y (:eek:) I see what you mean about 9F being missing on both flights, thereby indicating the newer re-fitted aircraft.

So my only confusion is with the J cabin, 20 versus 24 seats ??

Am I correct in saying that on the older config, 1 A+C were blocked out in the seat map, as they were reserved for crew rest, whereas in the new config, they should show as available. (provided of course that they are not already assigned)

Edited to add…….

Looking at the seatmaps again in Y for both flights, I see that on the 105/04 that the gap between exit row 32 & the row in front is larger than on the seatmap for the 109/8, even though both show seat 9F as missing.

So I take it from that then that the 105/04 is the re-fitted AC whereas the 108/9 is not !!

No problem Kered ^

Despite the 108/109 being stated as an A333 on those dates, the seat map is in fact that of the A332 & this has only recently changed, previously indicating an A333.

Sorry, I should have been more clear. It's only EI-ORD that has only 20 J seats which distinguishes it from the other aircraft. All of the other A333's have 24 seats in J class.

Indeed, on one of the older A332 aircraft which operated to SFO they were blocked out completely, but not the case now with the newer/re-fitted aircraft.

Overall, at present, both flight options on those dates appear to indicate newer cabins. Also, the fact that IAD & SFO will have been discontinued by these dates gives an even higher chance of aircraft with new cabins being assigned to the route.

Hope this helps,

EI Premier.

Ah yeah :cool:

I'm getting a picture of it now, thanks for your help ^

No problem.

Hopefully you will have a pleasant trip. The new EI Business/Premier product is excellent overall & well worth it if you are travelling on the DUB-JFK routing.

EI Premier.